May 10, 2011

David Goodstein has a unique perspective on scientific fraud, having pursued a successful career in research physics before becoming the provost of Caltech, one of the world's premier research institutions. As an administrator, he helped formulate Caltech's first policy for scientific misconduct and applied it to a number of prominent cases—all of which should put him in an excellent position to provide a rich and comprehensive overview of scientific frauds and other forms of research misconduct.

Unfortunately, his book On Fact and Fraud doesn't quite live up to this promise. Goodstein devotes most of the book to case studies of fraud or potential misconduct. Although many of the individual chapters are excellent, they don't come together to form a coherent picture of what constitutes misconduct or how to recognize it.>>>

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SCIENTIST 10 COMMANDMENTS

ARE YOU AN HONEST SCIENTIST?

Truthfulness in science should be an iron law, not
a vague aspiration.:."Anyone who has been a scientist for more than a couple of decades will realize that there has been a progressive and pervasive decline in the honesty of
scientific communications. Yet real science simply must be an arena where truth is the rule; or else the activity simply stops being science and becomes
something else:Zombie science."

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STOP THE NUMBERS GAME

"As a senior researcher, I am saddened to see funding agencies, department heads, deans, and promotion committees encouraging younger researchers to do shallow research. As a reader of what should be serious scientific journals, I am annoyed to see the computer science literature being polluted by more and more papers of less and less scientific value. As one who has often served as an editor or referee, I am offended by discussions that imply that the journal is there to serve the authors rather than the readers. Other readers of scientific journals should be similarly outraged and demand change." >>>

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"Almost every day, the media features news on academic corruption. Plagiarism, bogus degrees, degree mills, accreditation mills, research misconduct, and administrative misbehavior are among the most frequent topics, but academic corruption usually goes unnoticed in the public mainstream; rarely does it make the front page. However, this trend is already changing and academic corruption is captivating the attention of journalists and readers, and sometimes shocking the public.">>>

BARRIER TO THRIVING PLAGIARISM

"Plagiarism is a phenomenon that existed in the past, exists today and will exist in the future. Slovakia with its population of 5.4 million is confronted with theses and dissertation plagiarism like other countries. The rapid growth in the number of higher education institutions and students, the ICT and internet penetration growth plus low copyright and intellectual property rights awareness in our country contributed to the expansion of plagiarism - an unwanted kind of „creativity“. And there was an inherent lack of systemic action, which would be a barrier for its future growth." - Július Kravjar